Crag Halyv
Crag Halyv NE Small City (Eastern Region) Corruption +1; Crime +1; Economy +2; Law +1; Lore +0; Society +4 Qualities Magically Attuned, No Questions Asked, Strategic Location, Supportive Danger 5 Government Autocracy Population 9000 people (7000 tieflings, 500 oread, 1500 other) Notable NPCs Emily Ardensman (N Female Human Sorcerer 9/Pain Taster 3) Galtania Ardensman (NE Female Tiefling Sorcerer 17) Guindara Heldring (NE Female Oread Oracle 13) Marketplace Base Value 5200 gp; Purchase Limit 30,000 gp; Spellcasting 8th Minor Items 4d4 items; Medium Items 3d4 items; Major Items 1d6 items Crag Halyv is a strategically-located, heavily defended bastion of evil in the eastern reaches of the realm, located high atop a particularly active series of volcanic mountains. It's often been described as a place most people would rather not go, owing mainly to the fact that the entire city is magically attuned to the Neutral Evil plane. As a result, few pure humans are born there - instead, most births ultimately seem to wind up creating Grimspawn, Tiefling with the blood of Daemons flowing through their veins. A relatively small population of Oread seems immune to this effect (nobody is quite sure why), and they serve the city as guards and heavy laborers. Despite its well-deserved reputation for evil, Crag Halyv is actually quite supportive of its citizens, offering them relatively high amounts of freedom and protection from outsiders. This may have something to do with the "us against the world" mentality that many of its citizens have. They don't ask visitors for information about themselves because they don't want to get closer to others. The city is ruled by its most powerful sorceress, a daemon-blooded tiefling named Galtania Ardensman. Her main interests are protecting the city and expanding its power, and she usually does this by arranging for attacks on anyone who hasn't purchased protection from them. The fact that the city is located in a strategic, defensible spot makes it a lot harder to avoid these payments than many others would like - unfortunately, the city is a nut not so easily cracked. Interestingly, Galtania has a human sister, a sorceress in her own right. Emily isn't as powerful as her sister, but the taint in her bloodline is pure, and the result of a daemon breeding into her family just two generations back - which would be nice for her, except for the fact that Crag Halyv has quite an obsession with daemon-touched blood. Galtania spent several years conditioning Emily to pain and blood loss, and now Emily is mostly kept in a cage in the center of town, carefully bled so the city's tiefling citizens can partake of her blood and, they hope, increase the taint their own children bear. The city taxes foreigners fairly heavily, but merchants can waive half of the normal fees if they're willing to drink Emily's blood instead. In this way, Crag Halyv works to slowly spread the taint of daemonkind throughout the land... The oread population is led by Guindara Heldring, an Oracle of Adankora who constantly presses her kin to work harder and aim to achieve greater heights as part of their support of the city. Category:Location Category:Settlement Category:East Category:Small city Category:Made by GM Rednal